Weekly Open Classes
Looking for your child’s first dance class or wishing to improve and build on a pre-existing foundation within Contemporary Technique? NorthWestDance and The Lowry Centre for Advanced Training in Dance (CAT) offer classes from foundation to intermediate level, offering participants from the age of 6 – 17 years old a fun and insightful experience into the exciting world of dance. Our open classes allow young people to develop knowledge and skills in contemporary technique and the creative process, whether they are considering applying for the CAT at some point in the future, or simply love to dance.
CAT
Centre for Advanced Training
Are you aged 11-16 and love to dance? Then check out our Centre for Advanced Training (CAT) scheme.
Part of a family of National CAT Schemes across the country, The Lowry CAT is a part-time, pre-vocational course that gives young people access to high quality dance training. It’s ideal if you’re hoping to progress toward full-time training in the future.
The scheme will give you an important foundation in dance and allow you to reach your potential towards a sustainable and successful career in dance.
Benefits include:
- Take part in a minimum of 9 hours of training per week in contemporary and ballet technique, pilates and creative exploration
- Supplementary sessions – such as body conditioning, nutrition and dance in context
- Intensive courses – opportunities to work with some of the best national and international companies that visit The Lowry every year
- Individual training plans (ITP) – each student will receive an ITP, which will set out the programme of training, study, work and related activities
The CAT is funded by the Music and Dance Scheme through the Department of Education, providing financial support for families through means-tested grants.
The Lowry CAT are now recruiting for September 2020! Please click here for further details on how to apply.
The CAT is funded by the Music and Dance Scheme through the Department of Education, providing financial support for families through means-tested grants. Click here to download the Fee & Grant Information for 2019-2020.
- 78% of families receive financial support from the Department for Education’s Music and Dance Scheme
- 48% of students receive full-grants for their training
Grants are means-tested based on family’s annual earnings per tax year, with deductions and allowances made for dependents in accordance with the Department for Education’s guidelines.
NW Dance
NorthWestDance: The Lowry Youth Dance Partnership works closely with many different agencies and organisations around the North West and nationally to provide and champion high quality dance for young people across the region; promoting increased access to opportunities, raising standards and improving progression routes, through our varied projects and programmes.
Who are NW Dance?
We work in partnership with national organisations such as One Dance UK and the National Centre’s for Advanced Training in Dance (CATS) to deliver regional youth dance initiatives including The Lowry’s Centre for Advanced Training in Danceand U.Dance NW, the regions youth dance festival.
We work with organisations and dance companies across the UK to provide access to national projects for regional young people, such as New Adventures: ReBourne, Breakin’ Convention and English Folk Dance & Song Society.
NorthWestDance also manages Commotions Youth Dance Company, The Lowry’s Youth Dance Ambassador Scheme(alongside The Lowry Marketing Team) & the regional dance website www.northwestdance.org.uk; giving the regions dance artists and young people access to creative opportunities, progression routes and the opportunity to share their work with each other.
Check out the Sub Regional Dance Development page on the NorthWestDance website to find out who your local dance agency or organisation is. They will be able to let you know what exciting dance initiatives are available for you to get involved with in your local area!
If you’d like to get in contact with the NorthWestDance team then please do so as we would love to hear from you!
U.Dance NW 2020
U.Dance is a national framework run by One Dance UK which helps to improve and inspire dance performance opportunities for children and young people across England, through working in partnership with organisations across the country. You can register your own performance events to be a part of the U.Dance Framework on the One Dance UK website.
U.Dance NW is the annual Regional Young Peoples Dance Festival for the North West, delivered by NorthWestDance at The Lowry, Salford Quays. This event will take place Saturday 21st & Sunday 22nd March 2020 in the Quays Theatre!
The NW festival welcomes applications from dance groups across the region who work in all genres of dance with young people aged between 11-19 (or up to 25 for dancers with disabilities). It is a fantastic place to provide regional dance groups/ companies/schools the opportunity to perform on a professional stage, take part in dance activities and a variety of professional workshops, as well as meet other young dancers from across the region.
This year, U.Dance NW is providing four strands for young talent in the region to be a part of, including ‘Main Stage Performance’, ‘Under 11s Performance’, ‘Dance on Screen’ and ‘Choreographic Exchange’ strands. To find out more about these opportunities in detail, please read our Regional Information & Guidance Notes.
To apply for any of the strands of U.Dance NW 2020 with your group, please follow the below links: